Australian medical schools and colleges working with developing countries

Australia enjoys high standards of healthcare and medical education. However, the same cannot be said for many of the countries in our region. As some of the articles in this MJA issue on Global Health reveal, Australian institutions, professional organisations and health professionals are involved in projects to improve health in poorly resourced countries, particularly through capacity building — assistance with training, education and other resources needed to increase a country's ability to meet its health needs. As there is no readily accessible listing of the involvement of our medical institutions and individuals in this work, we approached the medical faculties of Australian universities and our clinical colleges for their current initiatives in developing countries. What follows is an arbitrary cross-section of these activities.